A $2,500 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the killer of two Catholic nuns found slain in Mississippi.

Sister Paula Merrill, a nurse practitioner with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, in Kentucky, and Sister Margaret Held, a nurse practitioner with the School Sisters of St. Francis, in Milwaukee, were killed, authorities said.

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The Catholic Diocese of Jackson said the nuns ran the Lexington (Mississippi) Medical Clinic. When the sisters failed to show up for work Thursday, police checked their home on Castalian Springs Road and found the bodies.

A blue Toyota Corolla that belonged to one of the victims was found on an abandoned road less than a mile from the home, Assistant Police Chief James Lee said.

The motive for the killings is unclear, and calling it a "robbery would be premature," said Warren Strain, a Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman.

The Rev. Greg Plata, the priest at St. Thomas Catholic Church, where the sisters attended Mass, described the nuns: "Just good women, women of prayer. They were outgoing, loving, caring."

The sisters were much loved by the doctors and residents in the area, he said. They were the primary caregivers at the clinic, he added.

Many of Plata's 30 or so parishioners mourned their passing at the church Thursday night.

"We basically cried and told our stories about them and talked about how important they were to us," he said.

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth said the community is in prayer.

"SCN President Susan Gatz asks that all 'pray in gratitude for the precious lives of Sisters Paula and Margaret ... they served the poor so well. Because we are gospel women, please also pray for the perpetrators."

Merrill, who Plata said he believes was 58, was a nurse practitioner in Mississippi for more than 30 years and had been at the Lexington Medical Clinic since 2010. According to the Sisters of Charity website, the clinic saw 8,000 patients in 2014, many of whom are poor and uninsured.

Held, 68, was also a nurse practitioner, who moved to Mississippi in 1983. She had been a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, for 49 years. She moved to Durant in 2003, officials said.

In 2011 she told the School Sisters publication "Alive" that "a dream and a cause" brought her to Mississippi but that she "stayed because of the people."

In a video posted on the SCN website, Merrill talked about providing health care in a county where the poverty rate is 44 percent, and the median household income among the 18,000 residents is about $21,400.

"Many people have no health insurance because they can't afford the premiums," she said. "They make minimum wage."

No one else will see them, she said.

The Clarion Ledger of Jackson reported that Dr. Elias Abboud, the clinic owner, said the sisters raised money to care for the poor.

"They would treat them for free," he said.

The top church official in the area praised their years of working with the poor.

"These sisters have spent years of dedicated service here in Mississippi. They absolutely loved the people in their community," said Bishop Joseph Kopacz of the Jackson Diocese.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said the sisters had made the community a better place and lamented their deaths.

"Unbridled love and care for mankind has been met with unparalleled savagery," he said.

A wake service will be held on Aug. 28 at St. Thomas the Apostle Church at 200 Boulevard Street in Lexington, Mississippi beginning at 5:30 p.m. A prayer service will be held at 6:30 p.m.

A memorial mass will be held Aug. 29 at 10:30 a.m. at the the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle at 123 N. West Street in Jackson, Mississippi.